ORLEANS, France – A small French town is to offer expectant mothers €1,000 (S$1,500) from 2026 to give birth at the local maternity ward in a bid to save it from closing.

The initiative from Jan 1, 2026, comes as birth rates dwindle nationwide, and countryside hospitals increasingly close their maternity units.

The labour ward in Saint-Amand-Montrond in central France is among around 20 in the country that does not meet the legally required 300 births a year to stay open.

Management projects just 226 births at the ward by the end of 2025.

Councillors approved the plan late on Dec 4 to offer future mothers vouchers worth €1,000 to spend at local businesses if they agreed to give birth in the town instead of travelling to a bigger hospital.

“We are not paying women to have babies, we are giving money to women who are already pregnant and decide to give birth in Saint-Armand,” right-wing mayor Emmanuel Riotte told AFP.

He said mothers would have to come in for prenatal check-ups first.

“Of course complicated births will have to be redirected to a specialised hospital, as has been done for decades,” said the mayor of the town of around 10,000 residents.

But some doctors are against the idea.

Four doctor unions – representing anaesthesiologists, obstetricians and emergency physicians – have warned patients should not be choosing where to give birth solely based on monetary compensation, warning of the risk of complications.

“When a maternity ward is threatened with closure, it is not for economic reasons but for safety reasons,” they said this week in a joint statement.

Dr Anne Wernet, of the national anaesthesiologist union, told AFP that rural maternities, which often had trouble attracting qualified staff, should be closing in the interest of mothers and newborns.

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